20110703. Business pleases Bruce Black Cats boss hails Wickham signing and hints at further arrivals Last Updated: July 3, 2011 1:28pm ....Steve Bruce believes Sunderland's capture of Connor Wickham proves they are a force to be reckoned with. The Black Cats pieced together a package which could be worth as much as £12million in order to lure England U21 starlet Wickham away from Ipswich. His signing is seen to be a show of intent from Sunderland, as they look to become an established top-half side in the Premier League. Seeing off competition from the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham to land Wickham suggests they are heading in the right direction. Bruce certainly believes they are, and is tipping his latest recruit to be a resounding success on Wearside. He said: "The signing of Connor Wickham is a statement of intent by Sunderland. Bold "It is a bold signing that shows we are building for the future. "There were a lot of clubs tracking him, but we were the ones who were prepared to meet Ipswich's valuation. "It is also a testament to our progress as a club that Connor wanted to come here. I am sure he will be a big hit with the fans." Bruce has already spent around £20million this summer on Wickham, Craig Gardner, Sebastian Larsson, Keiren Westwood and Ji Dong-Won, but hopes to add further fresh faces to his ranks before the 2011/12 campaign gets underway. "I'm absolutely delighted that we've been able to get so many players in ahead of returning for pre-season training," he said. "We've brought in what are five quality new signings and of course also made (Ahmed) Elmohamady's loan a permanent deal - and hopefully there'll be more."
Positive stuff from the manager and confirmation that there is more to come. I wonder if we are in for a smile signing?
I think its a good point made about signing all in before (well, hopefully not all) pre-season starts. Lets them bed into the team nice and early and means they don't have to be sorting stuff out like finding a house, school for the kids if they have them etc when all they should be doing is concentrating on their football when the season starts.
i bloody hope we do sign more because the signings we have made, as good as they are, are not enough imo, we need another striker, at least 3 defenders and a winger
Where does the £20m spending come from? Wickham £8m Gardener £5m Al Muhammady £2m Won £1.5m Larsson £Free Westwood £Free 6 players = £16.5m? We still have £3.5m from the /Jordan sale to spend before we even dip into any other funds? Where do these journalist's actually go to flaming' school? All 5 new faces will add to the squad and although the jury is still very much out on Al, he could come good in his 2nd season. I hope.
You cant add on money that may not be paid for several years though surely? Thats like saying you owe you have spent £10k on a car, when in fact you are paying monthly installments. We've paid £8m cash and the rest in instalments.
Not sure exactly but figures of £1.5m have been talked about. Wasnt the Cookie Monster his agent though? Lol
If we trust in our quality Chairman then we will buy another quality striker. If I remember rightly, after we didn't replace Bent in the January transfer window, Sir Niall said the money from the sale of Bent would be used on another quality striker ! So here's hoping !
Can't forget about any sign on bonuses. Footballers nowadays can plead poverty. They need a nice, fat sign on bonus to convince them to move. Prob figured those in the figure aswell.
